Current location:	Rhoose, South Wales
Current mood:	chipper
Current music:	Family Portrait by Pink

Fic: Illusion
Chapter 15: It’s supposed to be a ‘surprise’.

As always, previous parts are at http://www.chaoseternus.co.uk under main stories, illusion.

And of course, I do not own nor do I cliam ownership of characters and/or concepts from Labyrinth or Harry Potter

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There is nothing like walking around all day seeing half-hidden and excited smiles shot at you, the obvious hiding of objects as the dampening of conversation as you walk in the room to tell you that Something Is Up, with capital letters naturally.

Of course, the ‘happy’ attitude suggests it not a bad or perhaps a fatal thing, whatever from there point of view, but I have to ask, has the whole school been dragged into somebody’s plot for revenge? I mean, my outbursts, my displays of a lack of control have very much on occasion affected the whole school, and considering the results of said outbursts it’s not unreasonable that the students would want some form of revenge. On the other hand, I had thought that, excluding the Slytherins perhaps, said outbursts were actually being taken quite well.

Never mind, perhaps I think too much.

On the other hand, Snape just shot me a look of such pure disgust and exasperation that whatever it is the school has planned, I doubt it can be that bad. However, I may just be forced to recommend lessons in how not to let on that you have something planned for the whole bloody population.

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“Bloody Gryfindors!” Snape spat out, slamming the door of the Potions classroom shut behind him, “and you slytherins, you’re supposed to be better. What is the point of a surprise party if you let the subject of said surprise know that something is going on? Sarah isn’t blind you know, she is now damn well aware that something is up, which defeats the whole purpose of a surprise!”

Snape swung around, glaring at his class as if they were all morons. Said class in return were looking at the potions professor quite askance.

“He’s been replaced,” Ron spat out disturbed, “a… what was that phrase Harry?”

“Pod person,”

“Or perhaps the muggles have cloned him and trained the fake up as a spy to keep an eye on the wizarding world?” The class as one turned and gave Blaize Zabini an off look.

“His… her… well, Zabini’s parents decided to punish Blaize over the last holiday by sending her to live with distant muggle relatives, thought that would encourage her or him to get the grades up,” Draco noted, frowning as his housemate, “never been the same since,”

“What were they?” Hermione asked amused, “conspiracy theorists?”

“Something called a ‘movie critic’ apparently,”

There was a muffled snort from those portions of the room’s occupants that came from muggle parentage at that, but by this time, the look Snape was directing at his class could best be described as glacial.

“I think we could rule out muggle clone,” Hermione noted, “but magical cloning is possible.”

“So,” Harry replied, “first we need to verify if that is Snape, and if so, we need to find out if he is in his right mind,”

“This is Snape,” Draco pointed out.

“Okay, the frame of mind that is normal for Snape,”

“Just what do you think you’re playing at?” Snape ground out, the grinding of his teeth making the class wonder, not for the first time, exactly how often he had to magically regrow them.

“Sorry,” Hermione replied, raising her wand, “but the real Snape would never say anything that suggested he supported anyone other then the Slytherins having fun.”

“On that, both houses agree,” Draco noted raising his own wand, the rest of his house swiftly following.

“What? And just what do you think you’re doing…”

“Petrificus Totalis!”

“You know,” Ron commented and not for the first time, “you can be right scary sometimes Hermione,”

Draco shook his head, mentally, and also not for the first time, being forced to raise his opinion of the muggleborn a few notches. However, “you know, I’m glad I didn’t have to do that,” he said conversationally, as he stepped towards the petrified form of the Potions Master, “because if that is really him and if he is not actually being mind controlled, then he is likely to be more the mildly unhappy when he eventually gets unpetrified.”

Hermione glanced at Snape, his eyes caught her and promised a lifetime of detentions and her great-great-grandchildren still scrubbing cauldrons the muggle way. She yelped in fear, and tried to hide behind Ron who sensibly decided that being between Hermione and Snape might not be a good survival tactic and got out of the way.

“For the record,” Snape managed to grind out, “I was professionally insulted by the sheer lack of sneakiness and actual covertness being displayed by the school, I do not in anyway at all support the party!”

As one, the classes eye’s widened and they froze, but it was Ron who managed to express what they were all feeling at that moment.

“Oh bugger.”